The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down: How to be Calm in a Busy World

'Is it the world that's busy, or my mind?' The world moves fast, but that doesn't mean we have to. In this timely guide to mindfulness, Haemin Sunim, a Buddhist monk born in Korea and educated in the United States, offers advice on everything from handling setbacks to dealing with rest and relationships.

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

In the 20th century, European democracies collapsed into fascism, Nazism and communism. These were movements in which a leader or a party claimed to give voice to the people, promised to protect them from global existential threats, and rejected reason in favour of myth. European history shows us that societies can break, democracies can fall, ethics can collapse, and ordinary people can find themselves in unimaginable circumstances. History can familiarise, and it can warn.

Make Your Bed: Small things that can change your life...and maybe the world

'What starts here changes the world' was the university slogan that inspired William H. McRaven to take charge of the small things that could change his life...and even the world. Here McRaven shares the 10 life-changing principles he learned during his 37 years as a Navy SEAL. These 10 philosophies helped him to overcome challenges not only in his career but also throughout his life. What's more anyone can use these basic lessons to change themselves, and the world, for the better....

The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity

What will your 100-year life look like? Does the thought of working for 60 or 70 years fill you with dread? Or can you see the potential for a more stimulating future as a result of having so much extra time? Many of us have been raised on the traditional notion of a three-stage approach to our working lives: education, followed by work and then retirement. But this well-established pathway is already beginning to collapse.

Despite the association of peregrines with the wild outer reaches of the British Isles, The Peregrine is set on the flat marshes of the Essex coast, where J. A. Baker spent a long winter looking at and writing about the visitors from the uplands - peregrines that spend the winter hunting the huge flocks of pigeons and waders that share the desolate landscape with them. Such luminaries as Ted Hughes and Andrew Motion have cited this as one of the most important books in 20th century nature writing.

The Power of Meaning: Crafting a life that matters

There is a myth in our culture that to find meaning, you have to travel to a distant monastery or wade through dusty volumes to figure out life's great secret. The truth is there are untapped sources of meaning all around us: right here, right now. Drawing on the latest research in positive psychology; on insights from George Eliot, Viktor Frankl, Aristotle, the Buddha and other great minds, Emily Esfahani Smith identifies four pillars upon which meaning rests: belonging, purpose, storytelling and transcendence.

The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control

In The Marshmallow Test, Mischel explains how self-control can be mastered and applied to challenges in everyday life - from weight control to quitting smoking, overcoming heartbreak, making major decisions, and planning for retirement. With profound implications for the choices we make in parenting, education, public policy and self-care, The Marshmallow Test will change the way you think about who we are and what we can be.

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

Anders Ericsson has spent 30 years studying the special ones - the geniuses, sports stars and musical prodigies. And his remarkable finding, revealed in Peak, is that their special abilities are acquired through training. The innate 'gift' of talent is a myth. Exceptional individuals are born with just one unique ability, shared by us all - the ability to develop our brains and bodies through our own efforts.

The Road to Character

In The Road to Character, David Brooks, best-selling author of The Social Animal and New York Times columnist, explains why selflessness leads to greater success. We all possess two natures. One focuses on external success: wealth, fame, status and a great career. The other aims for internal goodness, driven by a spiritual urge not only to do good but to be good - honest, loving and steadfast. The inner self doesn't seek happiness superficially defined; it seeks emotional commitments without counting the cost and a deeper moral joy.

Feel overwhelmed by your thoughts? Struggling with anxiety about your daily tasks? Or do you want to stop worrying about life? The truth is we all experience the occasional negative thought. But if you always feel overwhelmed, then you need to closely examine how these thoughts are negatively impacting your lifestyle. The solution is to practice specific mindfulness techniques that create more "space" in your mind to enjoy inner peace and happiness.

The Storm of War

One of the best selling History titles of 2009. Examining the Second World War on every front, Andrew Roberts asks whether, with a different decision-making process and a different strategy, Hitler’s Axis might even have won. Were those German generals who blamed everything on Hitler after the war correct, or were they merely scapegoating their former Führer once he was safely beyond defending himself?

Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days

In the autumn of 1988, Michael Palin set out from the Reform Club with an ambitious plan: to circumnavigate the world, following the route taken by Jules Verne's fictional hero Phileas Fogg 115 years earlier. The rules were simple. He had to make the journey in 80 days using only forms of transport that would have been available to Fogg.

Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We LIve and Work

The authors of the best-selling Bold and The Rise of Superman explore altered states of consciousness and how they can ignite passion, fuel creativity, and accelerate problem solving, in this groundbreaking book in the vein of Daniel Pink's Drive and Charles Duhigg's Smarter Faster Better.

Run for Your Life: Mindful Running for a Happy Life

Anyone who has ever gone for a run, a jog or even a walk knows that uplifting, happy feeling they get at the end of their journey. Some call it the runner's high; others put it down to endorphins. Here William Pullen teaches us focus that incredible energy to experience our emotions in motion. In Run for Your Life, Pullen argues that we need a radical new approach to mindfulness - an approach which originates in the body itself.

PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future

From Paul Mason, the award-winning Channel 4 presenter, PostCapitalism is a guide to our era of seismic economic change and how we can build a more equal society. Over the past two centuries or so, capitalism has undergone continual change - economic cycles that lurch from boom to bust - and has always emerged transformed and strengthened. Surveying this turbulent history, Paul Mason wonders whether today we are on the brink of a change so big, so profound, that this time capitalism itself has reached its limits.

The Running Hare: The Secret Life of Farmland

Traditional ploughland is disappearing. Seven cornfield flowers have become extinct in the last 20 years. Once abundant, the corn bunting and the lapwing are on the Red List. The corncrake is all but extinct in England. And the hare is running for its life. Written in exquisite prose, The Running Hare tells the story of the wild animals and plants that live in and under our ploughland, from the labouring microbes to the patrolling kestrel above the corn, from the linnet pecking at seeds to the seven-spot ladybird.

Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics

Richard H. Thaler has spent his career studying the radical notion that the central agents in the economy are humans - predictable, error-prone individuals. Misbehaving is his arresting, frequently hilarious account of the struggle to bring an academic discipline back down to earth - and change the way we think about economics, ourselves, and our world.

Down and Out in Paris and London

An autobiographical study, Down and Out in Paris and London follows Orwell as he tramps around both Paris and London. Pawning his belongings to buy food, unemployment, drinking heavily and jostling for a place in homeless hostels are but a few of the experiences related with candour and insight in this unabridged exclusive audiobook. Orwell was arguably one of the first 'gonzo' journalists.

Fluent in 3 Months

Meet the man who makes the mission of learning any language possible! Language hacker Benny Lewis shows how anyone anywhere can learn any language without leaving their home, using a simple toolkit and by harnessing the power of the Internet. Benny definitely wasn't born with the ‘language gene'. After graduating in electronic engineering in his native Ireland he spent six months in Spain struggling to learn Spanish. This frustrating experience fuelled his determination to take a different approach to learning foreign languages.

Revolting!: How the Establishment are Undermining Democracy and What They're Afraid Of

A short, sharp intervention in the crucial debate about the future of democracy, which has been brought to a head by events from Brexit to the Trump phenomenon. In response to the emerging 'I'm a democrat, but...' consensus, this audiobook will argue for a forthright defence of democracy against its enemies and critics, old and new. As part of that argument, it will aim to show that the problem has not been too much democracy but too little.

Overcome Anxiety: A Self Help Toolkit for Anxiety Relief and Panic Attacks

Overcome Anxiety is an effective, practical, science-based, self-help book that will help ease anxiety, panic, worry and stress, and bring peace, calm, and courage to people who suffer from anxiety and stress - based on the successful Overcome Anxiety workshops of Dr. Matt Lewis.

Ancient Wonderings: Journeys into Prehistoric Britain

Take a journey into our ancient past. Explore a long-lost landscape and gradually discover the minds, beliefs and cultural practices of those souls who lived on these lands thousands of years before you. Travelling the length and breadth of Britain, James Canton pursues his obsession with the physical traces of the ancient world: stone circles, flint arrowheads, sacred stones, gold, and a lost Roman road.

The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

Depression can feel like a downward spiral, pulling you down into a vortex of sadness, fatigue, and apathy. Based in the latest research in neuroscience, this audiobook offers dozens of little things you can do every day to rewire your brain and create an upward spiral towardsa happier, healthier life.

Entrepreneur Revolution: How to Develop Your Enterpreneurial Mindset and Start a Business That Works

The world is embarking on a new age: the age of the entrepreneur, the agile small business owner, the flexible innovator. The days of the industrial age are over. It’s time to break free from the industrial revolution mind-set, quit working so hard, follow your dream and make a fortune along the way. The slow dinosaurs of the industrial age are being outpaced by fast-moving start-ups, ambitious small businesses, and technological innovators. Entrepreneur Revolution is a master-class in gaining an entrepreneurial mind-set, showing you how to change the way you think, the way you network, and the way you make a living.

Publisher's Summary

Solitude is a rapidly vanishing experience. Our society now embraces sharing like never before: time alone is being forced out of our lives by the constant pings of smartphones and prods of social media. But what if being alone still has something to offer us - something we have forgotten but that we still desperately need?

In Solitude, award-winning author Michael Harris examines why being alone matters now more than ever before. He reflects on the paradoxical feeling of isolation that emerges from being constantly connected - and on how learning the beauty of solitude can help us escape it. After all, it is when we are alone that we realise the greatest truths about ourselves. Being alone - really alone - could be the only antidote to the frenzy of our digital age.

Rich with stories about the transformative power of solitude, and drawing on the research of the world's leading neuroscientists and behavioural psychologists, Solitude offers a timely and profound exploration of how to be alone - and why it matters for us all.

What the Critics Say

"A timely, eloquent provocation to daydream and wander." (Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall) "I came away from this book a better human being. Michael Harris's take on existence is calm, unique, and makes one's soul feel good." (Douglas Coupland)